Raccoon at Clear Creek Road

Raccoon at Clear Creek Road by Carolyn B. Otto

As a spring afternoon cools into evening, a flock of starlings settles in a willow behind the yellow house on Clear Creek Road. Inside the tree, deep within a hollow, a mother raccoon awakens.
Raccoon listens to the starlings above and the rushing creek below.
She nuzzles her kits, born two days before. There eyes are closed and ears shut,
but their mouths are open wide.
Their hungry cries sound like twittering birds.
Raccoon nurses her kits until they grow drowsy with milk. She croons to them.
She washes each kit with her tongue. Once they are clean and fed and fast asleep,
Raccoon must find her own dinner. She has not eaten since the kits were born.
She climbs from the hollow in the tree, headfirst to the ground.
Light from the windows of the house makes a pattern on the grass.
Raccoon moves along in the shadows. She sees well in the night, and darkness hides
and protects her.
Raccoon sniffs at the vegetable garden on one side of the garage. It is too early for
peas to grow, and far too early for corn. The garden smells of dirt. There is nothing
to eat. At the edge of the driveway, three garbage cans smell like supper.
Standing to her full height, Raccoon pushes against one. Crash!
A light snaps on near the garage. Raccoon runs to hide. Her masked face and
ringed tail blend in with the backyard shadows.
Raccoon hears footsteps, a scraping, a clatter, and the rumble of the garage door moving up and then down.
The light goes out. The night is quiet. Raccoon sneaks along the driveway.
The garbage cans are gone. The smell of things to eat comes now from the garage.
The door is closed. She can not get in.
Hungrier still and thirsty too, Raccoon turns back toward the creek. A faint twittering overhead makes her climb the willow. Her kits are sleeping. The sound must have come from a starling. Raccoon climbs down again and this time heads for the water. She stops to drink, then splashes in up to her belly. With her front paws she explores the shallows.
She touches mud, sticks and a pine cone. The water feels cold and is running fast with rain from recent storms. Raccoon wades deeper to chase the silver flash of a minnow.
The pull of the creek grows stronger. She loses her footing, and the water sweeps her away.
Raccoon tumbles over drowned branches and a rock. She goes under. Water rushes above her head, but she struggles up to the surface. With her nose high, Raccoon paddles to the other side of the creek. She scrambles up the bank.
She is not hurt, though she is still very hungry. Raccoon shakes the water from her fur and cleans off the mud with her tongue.
Raccoon can see her willow tree across the creek. light from the yellow house shines through its branches, and reflects off a bright piece of tinfoil near her feet. Raccoon turns the foil over in her paws. Hidden just beneath it is an earthworm. Food!
She drops the foil pounce. Raccoon eats the worm, another worm, and a beetle. She finds a store of acorns and dried berries, forgotten by a squirrel.
Raccoon eats and eats and feels better.
Hoohoohoo! Raccoon sits up to listen. Hoohoohoo! A dark shape sweeps over the water toward the willow.
Her kits could be in danger! Raccoon paces along the bank, looking for a crossing. From a jutting boulder, she leaps to the slick back of a log. She slips and catches herself. Teetering, sliding, she claws her way to the other side of the creek.
Raccoon is at the foot of her tree when she scents a mouse. The smell is strong, delicious, and easy to follow. Raccoon hesitates, sniffing.
Hoohoohoo! The owl wheels overhead. Raccoon clambers up the tree. She must protect her kits. With a rush of nearly silent wings, the owl dives toward the hollow! Raccoon hisses. She is ready to fight! But the owl plummets past her, then plucks up the mouse and is gone.
Breathing fast, her hair still on end, Raccoon trills to her kits. They are safe and soundly asleep, and they are too young to answer.
Sometime soon their ears will open. And their eyes will open, black and bright. Before long they will be big enough to follow her to the shadowed yard below.
Then the kits will prowl with her around the yellow house on Clear Creek Road. There will be sugar peas in the garden, and sweet corn later on. The creek will grow lazy and slow with the heat of summer. And Raccoon will teach her kits to swim and to fish for silver minnows. Raccoon snuggles down with her kits, and they begin to twitter.

Here is some information about the Raccoon Raccoons are found across America, except in deserts and high mountains. After the sun goes down, raccoons start to look for food. With excellent night vision, they are able to find many kinds of plants and animals to eat. They sometimes swish their food through water as if they are washing it, but they are also kneading it with their sensitive paws. Raccoons have nimble fingers and they like to feel objects, especially things that shine.
Mother raccoons often make nests high up in hollow trees and give birth in the early spring. When the babies are born, they are helpless and small, only three or four inches long. At first , the mother raccoon forages close to the nest. As spring turns into summer, her searches for food gradually lengthen, until the kits have grown enough to come along. By autumn the kits are almost as big as their mother, fat and ready for the winter. The mother raccoon and her young sleep through the long cold months waking once in a while to forage. When spring comes they separate to begin new raccoon families.

Glossary of Terms

croon, trill, twitter: Some of the sounds raccoons make to talk to each other.
hollow: A cavity formed by rot in a limb or trunk of a tree.

kit: A baby raccoon, sometimes called a cub or pup.

mask: The dark hair around a raccoon’s eyes. The mask may adsorb available light, which may help the raccoon see better at night.

starlings: Iridescent black birds that roam in flocks and often damage crops. They were introduced into North America from Europe about a hundred years ago.

tail rings: Alternating light and dark colored bands that encircle a raccoon’s tail. A mother’s tail rings may be a signal for her kits to follow.

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